It really is the season of love on Grey’s Anatomy this fall. In this week’s crossover episode with Station 19, viewers will love cringing at the secondhand embarrassment Station 19‘s Dean (Okieriete Onaodowan) suffers when asking Grey’s Maggie (Kelly McCreary) out on a date.
At one point in Thursday’s two-hour episode, Dean drops by Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital to check in on a patient — but may have ulterior motives in mind. After faking interest in a patient, he struggles with the right words to transition to putting the moves on Maggie.
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Watch the sneak peek clip here from TV Guide.
After introducing himself, Dean says, “I was wondering how that lady was doing. That poor kid’s mom.”
“Yeah not good. There was too much damage to repair,” Maggie says.
“Wow, that’s too bad,” Dean says, leaving an awkward pause.
“Was there something else?” Maggie asks after looking around at Dean’s co-worker, who’s giving him an encouraging signal.
“Uh, yes, yes, uh, just trying to pivot from that. I kind of set myself up badly,” Dean stammers.
“For?”
“I was wondering if you’d like to get dinner with me sometime,” he says, which only leads to laughter from Maggie.
“Well, Dean,” she says through giggles.
“You don’t have to laugh,” he says, clearly uncomfortable after putting himself out there.
“It’s just… I had a fiancé named Dean once,” she says.
A beat, and then Dean: “This is going great.”
Fans will have to tune into Thursday night’s episode to see if Maggie agrees to a night out with the fireman. After all, her relationship with Jackson (Jesse Williams) is a little rocky these days after Jackson disappeared following a near-death experience.
Showrunner Krista Vernoff says Maggie and Jackson will struggle this season, calling Jackson’s actions “emotional whiplash.”
“It absolutely is an emotional whiplash and I think it’s a kind of emotional whiplash that people who once were atheists that are now coming to believe in something else out there really struggle with,” Vernoff told TV Guide of Jackson after DeLuca saves him and he loses a patient. “It’s like you’re believing in something and yet the world suddenly feels bizarre. What’s the reason? What’s the design? And Jackson is struggling. Maggie is struggling to support him. But he’s a fort and he’s gotta figure some things out for himself.”
Vernoff said Maggie and Jackson are still in the “early stages” of their relationship — but that doesn’t mean the struggles turn into a breakup. “They’re still in early stages. They just started dating in the final quarter of last season. It’s Grey’s Anatomy, so relationships in the early [stages] tend to struggle a little. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t love there,” she hinted.
Catch the Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 two-hour crossover event Thursday, Oct. 11 on ABC, starting with Grey’s at 8 p.m. ET and followed by Station 19 at 9 p.m. ET.